Some Will Not Receive You

The Gospel readings for several days this week contain Jesus instructions to his disciples as he send them out to proclaim the Gospel. Today he effectively warns them that they will not always be successful, that some people “will not receive you or listen to your words.”

We always want immediate and full success and we get frustrated if things don’t go according to our plans. I think there is a particular risk of that when we feel we are doing God’s work…there is a tendency to say: I’m doing what I’m supposed to be doing here, so why isn’t everything proceeding smoothly? And so when they don’t go the way we want, we get discouraged, frustrated, and maybe sometimes even a little resentful.

It is important for us to keep in mind that not even Jesus was successful in reaching everyone to whom he preached. So all we can do is keep true to our path. Mother Teresa addressed this, saying, “Live the Gospel in prayer; live the Gospel in words. Don’t be discouraged if you don’t reach the height right away. There is no reason for us to be either upset of discouraged, but just one thing is important….We simply live the Gospel.”

Use Me as You Will

I recently came across a wonderful parable for surrendering to and accepting whatever God has in store for us. It is a nice follow-up to the podcast I posted yesterday about Mary’s yes and her model for us. It is a story about a majestic bamboo tree that

“stood tall and proud in his Master’s garden. Because the Master came to admire it every day, the tree felt happy and wanted. One day, the Master told the tree it was needed for a special purpose and would have to be cut down. The bamboo tree felt angry it cried for a long time. But because it knew the Master wanted to use him for another purpose, it bowed and said, ‘Take me, Master, cut me down and use me for whatever you will.’

“The master took the bamboo tree and cut it down, slashed off all its beautiful branches and leaves, cut it in half and tore out its core. Then he laid the tall tree on the ground, joining it to a clear stream. The water ran from the stream through the tree’s hollow channel onto the rice fields.

“When autumn came, the fields looked magnificent, full of beautiful yellow rice that became the nurturing grain for many people. The bamboo tree saw this and became happy again. In its health,  it was beautiful and glorious; in its brokenness and humility, it became more glorious as the channel of life for many people.”

Saying yes to God involves letting go and trusting that God has a plan, which may not look very much like our plan.  When we say yes to God, anything is possible. 

Take me, Lord, and use me as you will.

(I found the story along with one account of its lesson here.)

Embracing Mary: Mary’s Yes Podcast

Here is my first foray into the world of podcasting. Mary’s Yes is the first in a planned series of six podcasts (at least I think there will be six) drawn from an 8-day guided retreat I gave in June 2007, on the theme of Embracing Mary. This podcast runs for 16:57. You can stream it from the icon below or can download it from here.

Children of the World

My daughter turned 15 yesterday.  We celebrated with dinner in a Japanese restaurant Saturday night and sent her off with a cake to have with her fellow Minnetonka Chamber Choir members after rehearsal last night.  Thursday the Chamber Choir leaves for Prague, Vienna and Salzberg to sing in a series of concerts.  After she returns from the tour, she will fly to New York to visit old friends and then spend three weeks singing with another group in Canada and and northern Vermont, before returning home so we can purchase whatever clothes and supplies she needs before the start of the new school year.

As a mother, the idea of any child suffering is a unbearably painful one.  As I think of my daughter’s life and the opportunities available to her, I can’t help but think of the millions of children in the world who are lucky they eat on their birthday, let alone get taken to a nice Japanese restaurant.  Of the children who, if they travel more than 50 miles from the place of their birth, do so because they have been sold into slavery, not because they are going to sing in a series of concerts or visit with friends.

I just finished reading Uwem Akpen’s, Say you are One of Them (mentioned on my Recently Read page).  This African Jesuit uses his powerful storytelling abilities to put before us the reality of the lives of so many children in Africa.   Ethnic and religious strife.  Poverty so dire it is hard to imagine. Experiences that no one should face, let alone 8, 9 and 10 year olds.   Read it and weep.

These are all our children.  We need to be aware of the reality of their lives.  And we need to think about our collective responsibility for the weakest among us.  “Whoever receives this child in my name receives me.”

What are we doing to secure the future of our children?  Of all of our children?

Compassion and the Dalai Lama

 Today is the birthday of Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama, the spiritual leader of the Tibetan people.  He writes and speaks frequently on the subjects of universal responsibility, religious harmony and compassion. 

In this excerpt, he talks about the need for the development of compassion.

“[I]t is possible to feel that anybody we meet, in whatever circumstances, is a brother or sister. No matter how new the face or how different the dress and behavior, there is no significant division between us and other people. It is foolish to dwell on external differences, because our basic natures are the same.

“Ultimately, humanity is one and this small planet is our only home, If we are to protect this home of ours, each of us needs to experience a vivid sense of universal altruism. It is only this feeling that can remove the self-centered motives that cause people to deceive and misuse one another.

“If you have a sincere and open heart, you naturally feel self- worth and confidence, and there is no need to be fearful of others.

“I believe that at every level of society - familial, tribal, national and international - the key to a happier and more successful world is the growth of compassion. We do not need to become religious, nor do we need to believe in an ideology. All that is necessary is for each of us to develop our good human qualities.

“I try to treat whoever I meet as an old friend. This gives me a genuine feeling of happiness.  It is the practice of compassion.” 

Whether we are Christians, Buddhists or members of any other faith, the practice of compassion is one in which we can all engage and one from which we can all benefit.  It is not always easy to “treat whoever I meet as an old friend,” but think of the difference it could make.

P.S. Today is also my daughter’s birthday, so Happy Birthday, Elena.

Half Full or Half Empty

I just finished reading Looking for Mary by Beverly Donofrio.  In it, the author talks about the way she has been conditioned to look at life, as the “daughter of a mother who believed that the world was so untrustworthy that even the weather had it in for her” and the granddaughter of a woman who “was incapable of appreciating the good that surrounded her.”  Ultimately, she begins to realize the truth of something she hears in a talk given by a priest during her pilgrimage to Medjugorje:

“All conflict begins at the same moment, when I become blind to what I have and see what I don’t.  We are conditioned to believe we need more to be happy.  It’s not bad to have more.  It’s bad when you do not see what you have.” 

It is always our choice whether to notice what we have or notice what we don’t have….whether to be grateful for the gifts we have been blessed with or unhappy because of the things that have been denied to us.  To use an example Donofrio uses in the book, if I wake up in the morning and the sun is not shining and the wind is howling such that I can’t do what I planned for the day, it is my choice whether to stomp around in unhappiness or to “watch the rain dribble down my window glass and think, ‘Wonderful; I can snuggle in and read a book.’”

What will we choose to see today?

The Myth that we Can Outrun our Woes

The Writer’s Almanac yesterday posted a poem called, The Rider.  The first line reads

A boy told me
if he roller-skated fast enough
his loneliness couldn’t catch up to him.

Although it may present a nice image in a poem, the line reflects a mistake we make a lot - the mistake of thinking that if we move quickly enough we can get away from those things that make us uncomfortable. 

The tendancy, when faced with an unpleasant feeling - unhappiness, anxiety, fear, loneliness - is to try to escape from the feeling.  We try to put distance between ourselves and the feeling by occupying ourselves with some distraction.  We think we can trick the feeling into going away.

 Remember the expression, you can run, but you can’t hide?   At best the avoidance strategy offers a tremporary reprieve.  The bad feeling hides for a while, but it will return. 

Ultimately we have to face the unpleasant feeling and whatever is underneath it.  To be with the feeling, whatever it is, without trying to resist it or run away from it.  To look at it without judgement and without trying to do anything about it.

That’s not something that is easy to do alone.  It is a lot easier if we remember that God is looking at it along with us…and that whatever we find underneath, God is there.

(Happy 4th of July.)

Blessed are the Meek

Over at Intentional Disciples, Fr. Mike is doing a series of reflections on the beatitudes that he made while preparing a homily for a baptism. The third of those posts considered, “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.”

Fr. Mike’s discussion helps, I think, to dispel the misunderstanding we tend to have about the meaning of meekness.  Meekness, he suggests, is really about understanding that it doesn’t always have to be about me.  Meek people  ”don’t have to be number one, they don’t have to win the argument – they can actually engage the other as ‘other,’ – ‘not like me’ – and delight in the difference. They can experience life, people, creation itself, all the graces God offers us daily, as an unearned gift – which is the nature of an inheritance.”

Meekness is not weakness and it does not mean we should let everyone walk all over us.  It is also not insecurity…in fact, not having to be number one, not having to have the focus on oneself, requires a certain level of security.  It is, however, about humility, and about experiencing “all the graces God offers us daily, as an unearned gift.”
  
Note: Fr. Mike’s reflections on the first two beatitudes are here and here.

Be Still

Be still and know I am God, says the psalmist in Psalm 46. It is a reminder I periodically need. I think it is a reminder many of us need now and then.

Actually it is a reminder we need quite a lot. We are always doing.  Always going.  Always planning three steps ahead to get everything done.  We spend so much time doing so many things. Then we do some more. We spend so much time doing (and worrying about the things we didn’t get done) that there is very little time for us to simply be.

Sometimes we need to just stop.  To just be in stillness.  To sit with God with no agenda. Perhaps to give God a chance to get a word in edgewise. I read the other day, “Stillness is the language God speaks, and everything else is bad translation.”

So find a few moments today to stop. To be still.

Be still and know I am God.
Be still and know I am.
Be still and know.
Be still.
Be.

A Hole in the Flute

I was reminded last night of an image used in a poem by Hafiz, a 14th century Persian poet.  The image is in a short poem called, The Christ’s Breath.  Hafiz says simply:

I am a hole in a flute
that the Christ’s breath moves through–
listen to the music.

I was taken by this poem the first time I read it.  There is something about the way it expresses the sense of our being an instrument of the Christ in the world, a channel through which flows Christ’s peace and love, that touches me deeply. 

I think what I react to is both the intimacy and the interconnectedness.   The incredible intimacy of Christ breathing through us…Christ’s breath flowing through us - and through us, into the world. And then the interconnectedness…the sense that I am not the whole flute, but only a part…Christ breathing through not only me, but also through you, so that it is together that we make beautiful music for the world.